Whether the reform of the accounting system affects the corporate innovative behavior: evidence from a quasi-natural experiment

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the accounting system reform on corporate innovation behavior and the heterogeneity and underlying mechanisms of this impact. This paper further aims to study the impact of accounting system reform on corporate value. Design/methodology/approach This study takes China's A-share listed corporates as a sample and uses the exogenous policy shock of the implementation of the New Accounting Standards in 2007 to design the identification strategy of propensity score matching and difference-in-differences method. By comparing the differences between the innovation level of corporates in high-tech industries and non-high-tech industries before and after the implementation of the New Accounting Standards, the impact of the accounting system reform on corporates' innovative behavior can be identified. Findings Results show that compared with corporates in traditional industries, high-tech corporates obtained higher patent output after the implementation of the New Accounting Standards. This reform mainly affects corporate innovation by improving corporate risk-taking. In addition, this paper finds that the reform of the accounting system has increased the market value of high-tech corporates in the long run. Originality/value This study provides new empirical evidence for addressing the insufficient innovation incentives for market entities and enriches the existing literature on the economic effects of the change of accounting systems and the influencing factors of corporate innovative behavior from the accounting system perspective.